Writer and activist Mia Mingus gave this amazing keynote at the Femmes Of Color Symposium in Oakland, CA (8/21/11) and has graciously given us permission to cross-post. Here is an excerpt of what she’s sayin about activism, gender/sexuality, visibility and disability in an increasingly celebrity-fied culture. You can read the rest on her blog, Leaving Evidence.

I want to seriously resist, challenge and shift a culture of celebrityism in our movements. I do not, and cannot do this work alone. It is built on the backs of poor people, queers, women of color, disabled folks and so many more who have come before me. It has taken so much for me to be able to be here today as I am, about to speak to you about being femme as a disabled queer woman of color. Has taken so much for us to even get to the point where gender and femme would be considered worthy political subjects to speak on. Taken so many (in particular) women of color who have struggled long and hard to claim a place and be seen as women against the loud static noise of white-womanhood; who have fought to connect gender and race and left a legacy of brilliant work, poetry and story for us to learn from. Taken so many disabled women of color working to have our lives seen (by other women of color) and our bodies understood as worthy, refusing to let disability be in opposition to “woman.” Refusing to let able-bodied femmes dictate what femme gets to be and demanding accountability to ableist notions of gender, beauty, sexuality and desire that supposedly represent “all of us.”[…]

I do this work in service of community. I tell my story with the knowing that our stories are tools for liberation. I speak knowing that all of our voices are important. I speak to leave evidence for the people like me who are searching for reflection and recognition and a “yes, we exist.” I speak to leave evidence for folks who have been told that disability is not as important as race, or that gender justice will have to wait until after class equality is won. For folks who have been told that how you feel is less important than what you think; for those who don’t have the luxury of being able to rattle off 10, even 5, writers or books that reflect their identities or experiences. Those of us who straddle the lines between multiple oppressed communities. For those of us who are working to end violence for all of us, not just some of us. For those of us who truly believe that no one’s safety is more important than anyone else’s, even when we feel unsafe…